So here you are, a nice August thunder in the countryside: Last week a thunderstorm went over Southern Finland - and without much further thinking I ran outside with a mic boom in my hands, only to remember a short while afterwards it was really a bad idea, as the boom stand was metallic, as was the mic... and we have no lightning conductor in our house - well, effectively I was that for short while - so I decided to continue with only the internal mics of a Zoom H4n. Not an obvious choice, but I didn't want to soak my fake foam head made for OKM ortophonic microphones, and the OKM mics themselves.

So here you are, a nice August thunder in the countryside:
Ukkonen 100810 44100 by alanko

Read the whole review here: http://bit.ly/b5kq9J

Well, indeed. If anyone’s ever encountered anything truly horrible or terrifying, frightening sights, the impact is more powerful when one’s not prepared for the strike. The emotional contrast is probably the most important factor, if an ultimate grasp – gameplay or movie action – is desired. Also, the usual human characteristic of adapting the surroundings plays an active role here, as a survival tool.

What really caught my attention was Mr. Damigella’s final paragraph: “…it could be interesting to hear what he and fellow-Finn and Nightwish mastermind Tuomas Holopainen could potentially co-create together. Especially since they both have creative styles which could sound interesting when combined.”

Hmm. Very, very, very interesting.

Well, what can I say, other that THANK YOU, GUYS and – well, I definitely hope the same, too. :-D

The only problem is that there are a few other guys as well, and some of them have a much longer track record from game music industry than myself. Although I’m easily the most persistent fellow in this galaxy when I’m in that mood, it isn’t worth a sh1t3, as I’m still relatively new to the folks in the development teams and behind the industry tables.

Yes I know, it’s a bit funny to advertise the score, but I just had to take a screenshot of it. It feels damn good to see that, I must admit, but at the same time I feel humbled to the core. The music is reaching people’s hearts, and in the end, that’s the only thing that matters.

Also, I must say with my geekier voice (pun intended), that with a thinner story and less believable characters the result would’ve sounded a lot different – and the review score would’ve been much lower, I’m sure. My train of though goes like this: a strong story feeds the characters that feed the world that feeds the music. Let’s call that an Emotional Value Chain, EVC, in which the minimum link value also provides the absolute average instead of the usual arithmetic (a+b+c…+z)/n average. Sounds illogical, but feelings often are, right, Spock? ;-)

The point is: one cannot compensate a delinguency in EVC. It’s as strong as its weakest link, whereas the technical value chain behaves somewhat differently: who cares about aliasing (or whatever) if the story grabs you and the environment puts you always in the mood?

But 10? Happy, happy, joy, joy! Yay! :-D

Also, what I appreciate a lot as a composer, was the separate track rating list. For me, that works as a small scale “market research”, although the target group here in question was only one reviewer. Hmm, speaking of which: I’d like to see a larger crowd rating the Alan Wake OST tracks, just to find out how different parts of world valuate certain things. On the other hand, multinational hitmakers have proved that a good melody doesn’t discriminate.

Even though composing is sometimes related to running in the dark with a dimming flashlight (heh), a good review can provide you some bullets and batteries for the next level – in the form of constructive criticism. Thanks, Mr. Masalar.

I hope he doesn’t blow his fuses for me being a mix-and-tell guy, but Orkidea’s Logic sequence layouts are probably the most organized I’ve ever encountered. Myself, I never name any tracks or channels, whereas his are always named appropriately – and even colour coded. All samples always tidily in their appropriate folders… Neat and clean, and most of the time everything necessary is already there, and you just put some SSL or Neve compressor on, add some eq’ing. Easy job.

By the way, a while ago I was bouncing Slusnik Luna’s “The Sun 2010” (a re-make of a classic year 2000 trance track “The Sun“, by Niko Nyman) and Matrix-12 was still in a state of limbo. Then Mikko recapped most of it, replaced the EPROMs with his patent tricks – and it’s been working ever since. (I think I better have another go with “The Sun” now that it’s working.) See Slusnik’s web site here: http://bit.ly/9dCL05

Anyway, once you’re surfing, go check Orkidea’s site here: http://bit.ly/arXISl – and make sure you have a listen to one of his DJ webcasts. His way of mixing tracks together is a form of art. Period. Anyone can use decks and a crossfader or a laptop with controllers, but to make DJing a musically flawless act is a totally different thing, and that’s where Orkidea’s very good at.

Everyone can put together a pile of clips and call it something, even a movie (which is often the case) – but there are only a handful of guys that can make a grown man cry by just cutting from scene to another, I’ve seen Stobe do that, so the words of Sam Lake (“I’d trust any story of mine into his hands”) aren’t just words, they carry a lot among them. No wonder he’s so busy.

By the way, the vocals on that track were kindly provided by Cait McWhir/Tonehammer. Thanks!

I also think I better do something for those promo pictures. Like burn them.

What really amazes me is the sudden depth of some questions – I started answering them and after two sentences I realized I have to open up quite a few other crates as well, not just the one I’m handling. An easy “synth or orchestra” question really became a struggle and I tried to be as short-mouthed as I could. Which, unfortunately isn’t much.

Amazon (as a CD)
Amazon download
BestBuy
iTunes (link to USA iTunes Store)
and straight from Sumthing Digital.

So there. Unfortunately, for us Europeans, it’s Amazon.co.uk only.

Also, I have to notify that iTunes USA quite falsely advertises flute solo recordings also done by a guy with a same name, although we’re not even related. His recordings are top-notch as well, but be warned that it’s not me. I better charge him some royalties for promotion duties. :-D

Ok. While you’re there, try finding some concert organ stuff by Kalevi Kiviniemi as well, with a hint of Osmo Vänskä & Sinfonia Lahti thrown in for some Scandinavian taste. End of promotion.

There are 18 tracks total, some of which were taken from in-game music and meticulously edited into one piece of music – a challenge in itself, by the way – but everything seems to fit in, pretty nicely, I’d say. Some of the track still bring the tears to my eyes – even though I’ve heard them literally hundreds of times, first composing, then arranging, recording, mixing, playing AW… everyone making music knows what I’m talking about. As a composer/produces/engineer one-man-does-it-all combination I face the challenge of arguing with myself on artistic values over technical aspects, the stuff normal people usually do in a group, or with a team. But, I’d like to emphasize there never were any real problems, just some choices to be made.

Check the whole thing on the Top Dollar PR site.